| System and method for agent assisted information retrieval -> Monitor Keywords |
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System and method for agent assisted information retrievalRelated Patent Categories: Data Processing: Financial, Business Practice, Management, Or Cost/price Determination, Automated Electrical Financial Or Business Practice Or Management Arrangement, Operations ResearchSystem and method for agent assisted information retrieval description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20060149606, System and method for agent assisted information retrieval. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] Locating useful information on the World Wide Web, local area networks, or in the multitudes of specialty databases available online often proves very frustrating to computer users. This is not particularly surprising given that major internet search engines alone index billions of pages and there are estimated to be some 350,000 specialty databases not indexed by those search engines. Worse yet, the Web's growth rate of 7 million pages/day only hints at its dynamic nature--with huge volumes of content being updated or added constantly. [0002] The ever-burgeoning Internet provides users with access to billions of electronic documents--with perhaps hundreds of millions of documents being added or changed daily. Information technology has also lead to massive increases in the publication of information within the internal networks of large and small organizations. But the sheer size and dynamism of these online resources, together with the large heterogeneous collection of available search tools, can make a search for useful information very difficult. [0003] Ever since the development of the very earliest information retrieval systems, researchers have sought to improve the situation. One known method is Relevance Feedback in which the user feeds back notions of which query results were relevant/irrelevant to the current query. This data could then be employed by the information retrieval system to recalculate the relative importance of key words, expand the user's query to improve precision, and/or to re-rank query results. While Relevance Feedback is theoretically powerful, current implementations have shown limited utility and have not been widely adopted by users. [0004] A number of information retrieval systems take an alternative approach to improving queries which takes the form of an interactive query refinement process. This approach allows the user to refine their query through the addition of one or more system generated related terms that may more accurately reflect the user's objective. Unfortunately, this approach offers little except when users are seeking very general interest information. [0005] Moving beyond the objective of improving specific queries and seeking to address user interface issues, researchers have developed so called "zero-input" personalization systems to provide users with awareness of content similar to documents they discover during search and browsing. Unfortunately, these zero-input interfaces trade reduced user input requirements for efficacy and leave the user without a feeling of control. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0006] Emodiments of the present invention relate to a method and system for enhancing users' abilities to efficiently conduct thorough online searches. [0007] According to one aspect of the invention, three components are utilized in searching, including: (1) an information need modeling system; (2) a lead pursuit system; and (3) a search post-processor. [0008] According to another aspect of the invention, interaction between the system and the user begins with a preliminary modeling of the user's information need. This information need modeling can proceed through any combination of direct user specification and through the automated analysis of user actions and rated documents. The information need model associated with the user may take many forms. According to one embodiment, the user's information need model includes a set of rated documents, ranked multi-word terms, and document references (such as in the form of Uniform Resource Locators (URLs)). [0009] According to yet another aspect of the invention, the information need model is dynamic in nature. In other words, the information need model is continually adapted based on user input and explicit and implicit feedback in order to track the user's changing needs over time. Essentially this model represents a collection of "leads." [0010] According to another aspect of the invention, a Lead Pursuit System evaluates the available leads to estimate their likely value in discovering new information relevant to the user's information need. The lead pursuit system is also directed at allowing the user to provide as much or as little input into this prioritization of these leads as they desire. The Lead Pursuit System then processes the most promising leads in accordance with an established schedule and/or in response to explicit user input. The manner in which particular leads are pursued in a search depends on their type. For instance, indicative and counter-intuitive terms may be combined to form Boolean queries to Web search engines or other information retrieval systems. Other leads of specific types such as bibliographic information (e.g., names, titles, subjects or reference numbers) can be exploiting using the advanced search features of the information retrieval systems. URLs can alternatively be used in specialized queries such as AltaVista.TM.'s "like:" (to retrieve related documents) and "link:" (to retrieve documents containing that URL) queries, as seeds for a focused crawling process, or can be monitored for document content changes. Alternatively, the user may explicitly create a query and task the Lead Pursuit System to execute it unaltered. Pursuing the leads is directed to the discovery of documents (e.g., Web pages or meta-tagged data files) which are then passed to the search post-processor. [0011] According to still yet another aspect of the invention, a search post-processor removes duplicates (documents previously rated by the user) and scores documents according to one of many potential ranking functions which may draw on a variety of data including, but not limited to: identified key terms, references (e.g., URL or bibliographic references) to/from documents previously rated as useful, source credibility information, community ratings, and the like. According to one embodiment, it has been found effective to rank search results through a simple summation of the scores associated with the identified indicative (positive scoring) features (i.e., key terms, named entities, references) and counter-indicative (negative scoring) features that are found within each result. Once scored search results can be presented to the user in any number of fashions. For example, the results may be presented in a linear list, each displayed with associated summary text and a list key terms that match those found in the information need model. Other options include displaying search results within the context of dynamic summaries of documents the user has previously labeled as useful to the user's search tasks. These summaries display information regarding the contents and properties (e.g., document type, length, summary) of the document as well as lists of the most similar (by content overlap) and/or related (by shared references, source, or the like) documents that have been discovered. [0012] According to still yet another aspect of the invention, at any time during the process, the user may refine his information need model and or manipulate the list of identified leads by providing explicit feedback on discovered document, key terms, or URLs. The information need model may also be refined in response to the automated analysis of user activities and new document discoveries. In this manner the information need model is continually and iteratively refined to track the user's evolving information need. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0013] FIG. 1 illustrates an agent assisted search system; [0014] FIG. 2 shows a detailed view of an Information Need Modeling System; [0015] FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic diagram of an exemplary network overview, in which the invention may operate; [0016] FIG. 4 shows a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary computing device; [0017] FIG. 5 illustrates a process identifying and scoring key multi-word terms; [0018] FIG. 6 shows a lead list merger process; [0019] FIG. 7 illustrates integrating user ratings with the system derived Calculated Scores; and [0020] FIG. 8 shows a process for evaluating the usefulness of documents, in accordance with aspects of the invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Continue reading about System and method for agent assisted information retrieval... Full patent description for System and method for agent assisted information retrieval Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this System and method for agent assisted information retrieval patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. 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